Wednesday, April 29, 2009

National begins dirty tricks campaign in Mt Albert, apparently

National’s dirty tricks have started even before Labour has selected a candidate for the Mt Albert by-election, Deputy Leader of the Opposition Annette King said today.

National and John Key’s dishonest attempt to discredit one of eight potential Labour candidates shows the Government’s eyes are off the ball when they should be focusing on peoples jobs and the upcoming budget. National has trawled through research papers written by David Shearer dating back to1998. The papers looked at the use of private security in war torn nations where innocent civilians, mostly women and children, were dying and there were no better alternatives.

“They’ve fed this information to their right wing blogging friends.

So why haven't I been fed? Or aren't I "right wing blogging" enough. Actually I' m not even left wing blogging enough, either, as nobody gave me any papers after Mike William's trip to Melbourne.

Actually I've already got the research paper. On my internet. (Okay its just the first page). The full article is also on the Internet thanks to Kiwiblog, the right wing blogger who did not get it from National, because it wasn't a Nat staffer who checked the databases.Annette King, DLOTPWNCFMA, says:

Why are they trying to dig dirt on one of the nominees, I predict that by the weekend they would have gone through the whole eight.

Now, there's a thought! Lets start with the candidate who is named after a Christian radio station: Rhema Vaithianathan. She's written a journal on the Economics of Female Genital Cutting which you can download here. In the article she argues that female genital cutting is a pre-marital investment associated with better marital outcomes. Which has got to be good for social and economic policy. Anyway back to King, DLOTPWNCFMA:

“I hope it’s not a sign of the tactics National plans to adopt for the campaign. Labour is committed to fight a strong, clean and fair by-election.

...now that they have kneecapped their best candidate because they don't want their worst list MP back in Parliament if he wins.

4 Comments:

We're just not vast enough for the right-wing conspiracy. Meanwhile, can I run a thought experiment by you. A senior trade negotiator writes an article for a journal in which he argues that it would be a good idea for the WTO to outsource some of its core functions to lobbyists.

Seven years later, he announces that he's leaving public service to stand for parliament, and is widely tipped to become the Trade or Foreign Affairs Minister. It's "dirty tricks" to cite a policy paper printed under his by-line and ask whether he still hold those views, and how they might be reflected in government policy?

I'm sure Tim Grosser (or Don Brash who left quite a paper trail as reserve Bank Governor) would be amused to hear that. ANd you know something: It would be a legitimate matter of public interest, no matter how politically inconvenient.

It's "dirty tricks" to cite a policy paper printed under his by-line and ask whether he still hold those views, and how they might be reflected in government policy?Craig, Are you stating that it is (with your it's) or asking whether it is (with the ?)?

eeeer- you might actually want to read the paper before going so sensationalist. Yes the headline and proximity of it to labour makes for a startling headline, but read the paper.

The final conclusion is:

In order to eradicate the practice, countries have to reduce FGC rates below some criticalthreshold, after which the practice will naturally die. This provides some optimism for thosecountries such as Burkina Faso where the government is making strong moves to proscribe it(although it is too early to judge whether this is indeed working). The early empirical evidenceis that rates are indeed declining following public campaigns against FGC which started in 1985.Our paper suggests that in countries where women have little opportunities outside of marriage,there will be over-investment in characteristics such as FGC that increase their marriageability.Therefore, in the long run, expanding the economic opportunities for women beyondthe marriage market is the most sustainable way to ensure that such harmful practices do notemerge.I think thats pretty hard to argue with, or to charge the author with endorsing medieval practices.